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Five Years On ….

It was five years ago today that evil forces tried to rip our country apart. It is believed that these forces were motivated by hatred of our freedoms, hatred our way of life, disdain for our morals, and … just maybe … jealousy of our sense of national unity and our success as a nation.

Five years later, we are seeing our freedoms deteriorate, our way of life encumbered, our morals being enforced by pandering polititians, and our unity in tatters. In response to the attacks, we have irrationally shed the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in a completely random nation, fueled the hatred of scores of disenfranchised and damaged peoples, and squandered the good will of united globe who stood with us on 9/11/2001.

And our future success as a nation is now jeopardized by an overwhelming war debt.

But I also believe that the goodness of the American people is being put to the test, and I believe we can regain our footing as a nation, and set aright the wrongs that have been done. I’m reminded of a line in the movie “Control Room,” in which Hassan Ibrahim, a Sudanese journalist with Al Jazeera, says that he has “absolute confidence in the United States Constitution and absolute confidence in the American people to stop this.”

That came from an Al Jazeera reporter. Our capabilities for doing the right thing as a nation are clear–even to those who our own administration has reviled. Well it’s clear to me too. I believe the United States is the greatest of all nations, and I believe our success and wealth are evidence of a system that may not be perfect, but is undeniably better than all the other systems one could offer.

And our success has blossomed from one central tenet of our culture: faith in ourselves. Our government was devised with the belief that the people can rule themselves. While the current administration has been using fear and control to tactically chip away at that faith, it lacks the strategy to eradicate that faith from our culture. America has, and will always have, freedom in our hearts. Attempts at taking it away will fail. The question is … when?

And in these next few months, Americans will have one of the most important elections of our lifetime. In this election we have the chance to start rebuilding what has been systematically dismantled over the past five years. We have the chance to establish a new mandate (an actual mandate) that will send a clear signal to the current administration, and more importantly, to the rest of the world. I would like to prove Mr. Ibrahim right.

I’m not a strong believer in either political party in this country. But I am a strong believer that it is only through opposition that we maintain the proper balance of powers that will keep our country strong. For that reason I’m hoping that a democratic majority in the House of Representatives in November will make its first order of business to Impeach President Bush AND Vice President Cheney.